Newmarket handler John Gosden is delighted with Lah Ti Dar and Cracksman ahead of the Oaks and Coronation Cup at the Investec Derby Festival.
Lah Ti Dar, daughter of Dar Re Mi, also trained by Gosden, is Unibet’s market leader for the fillies’ Classic, the Investec Oaks, as she bids to emulate stable companion Enable, who captured the 2017 renewal impressively.
Lah Ti Dar was set to work during yesterday morning’s Breakfast With The Stars event at Epsom Downs, but Gosden decided against bringing the three-year-old filly, owned and bred by Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber.
Gosden said: “Lah Di Tar worked nicely on Friday and cantered this morning.
“Travelling for six hours in hot conditions was not something she quite needed 10 days ahead of the race.
“She is fit, she is well and she is happy. She has pleased us in everything that she has done and I just felt she would be better off at home rather than on the road – the Dartford Tunnel is not a lot of fun either.
“You always hope that horses are going to live up to their pedigrees. Last year, she just grew and grew – she is a tall filly which is why we said look we are not going to send her to Newcastle like Enable, we are just going to wait until the spring at Newbury, where she ran a very fine race to win.
“It was then back here to Newmarket for the Pretty Polly on ground that was quick enough for her, but she got the job done nicely.
“She is very much a filly crying out for a mile and a half. Her mother stayed the distance well and she is growing up like her mother.
“I am not worried about the ground at Epsom Downs. In Andrew Cooper, Epsom Downs has the best Clerk of the Course in the country.
“There is always a lush cover of grass at Epsom and I am confident the ground will be as we want it on the Friday.
“Lah Ti Dar’s mother was going for the Investec Oaks. She was walking along by (fellow trainer) Sir Mark Prescott’s wall and someone gunned a lawn-mower on the other side and she whipped around, fell and was lame so she missed the Oaks for a pretty eccentric reason. That’s life.”
Gosden is set to rely on Europe’s top-rated horse Cracksman (8/13) in the G1 Investec Coronation Cup at Epsom Downs on June 1.
A brilliant winner of the G1 QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot in October, the son of Frankel made an exciting start to his four-year-old campaign at Longchamp on April 29, when he gained an easy victory in the extended 10-furlong G1 Prix Ganay.
Cracksman, owned and bred by Anthony Oppenheimer, will be making his third appearance at Epsom Downs, having won the Investec Derby Trial and finished a close third in the Investec Derby in April and June respectively last year.
Gosden said: “I am very happy with the horse – he has done everything right.
“Cracksman was only 85 to 90 per cent fit for his reappearance at Longchamp. He has come on since then. He is a versatile horse from a mile a quarter to a mile and a half and has had plenty of experience at the track. We’re looking forward to running and he is a horse who has matured into his frame.
“He was the unfinished product when he was third in the Derby and he has just kept on progressing, especially after we gave him a holiday following the Irish Derby last year.
Gosden said: “I am very happy with the horse – he has done everything right.
“Cracksman was only 85 to 90 per cent fit for his reappearance at Longchamp. He has come on since then. He is a versatile horse from a mile a quarter to a mile and a half and has had plenty of experience at the track. We’re looking forward to running and he is a horse who has matured into his frame.
“He was the unfinished product when he was third in the Derby and he has just kept on progressing, especially after we gave him a holiday following the Irish Derby last year.
“We look forward to a fabulous Investec-sponsored weekend, with the amount Investec put in. We have to be incredibly grateful for their promotion of the Investec Derby Festival and all of the sponsorship.”